Monday Mischief – Destructor of Toys

Back in April (“The Short and Long Life of Toys“) I shared with you that Sheba had been training Luke to destroy stuffie toys. It got to the point where we have stopped getting stuffies, because he can put a hole in one in literally minutes. He eats anything and everything, so we just can’t take the chance that he’ll eat a squeaker.

Now he’s even kicked it up another notch. First, a short story I wanted to share with you about Chewy.com. We do reviews for Chewy sometimes, but we also shop there. This story is about a shopping experience and in no way endorsed by Chewy.com.

I ordered this toy, the Kong tug toy seen to the left here, from Chewy.com last month. When we received our package, there was actually a 4 pack of these toys, instead of just the one I had ordered. I had just given Luke the toy to play with and sat down and had an online chat with a representative at Chewy to let them know what had happened. I was impressed when she told me to keep the 4 toys. She suggested that if I couldn’t use them, then maybe I could give them to my local shelter? I love a business with good customer service, the rep was friendly and helpful; best of all I didn’t have to be bothered to mail the extra toys back to the company, and that made me happy.

I was impressed with Chewy’s customer service, but I was far less impressed with Luke’s ability to destroy that toy, which is made of durable rubber, in a matter of minutes. I was in the middle of the chat when I checked on Luke, who had taken the toy outside, and found he had chewed through it! He is turning out to be even more destructive than Sheba, which I didn’t think was possible! Now, the toy says it is not for unsupervised play, so I can report that is very true if you have a dog like Luke. But it’s a great toy for tug, and I was certainly happy we had an extra, since I had to throw the first one away (one end was bitten into chunks)!

He has also bitten off the end of two West Paw Bumi toys, seen to the left here. That toy comes in two sizes and those were the smaller ones. So far the larger one is holding up, and they also like the Tux toy, which you can see he and Sheba playing with below.

Though the larger Bumi is holding up, you can see below that he has managed to get some teeth marks in it, and below that you can see what both he and Sheba do to the balls that they play with. The toys have a one time guarantee, so we could choose to have them replaced. They are also made of non-toxic materials which makes me feel a little less nervous when it’s possible they might have eaten a little bit. West Paw Design is in no way sponsoring this post either….they are just one of our favorite companies.

So, we are constantly on the hunt for some different toys that will stand up to these two! Recently some of our favorite bloggers contributed to an article on just this subject: Durable Dog Toys – Dog Toys Recommended by Owners of Large Breed Dogs. With Luke’s birthday coming up, I am looking for some new toys for him, and this article was a big help. I have already chosen one of the toys in the article for his birthday, and we’ll report on how it holds up to him after that. The good news for our readers is that we will be giving away those Kong toys as part of the big birthday giveaway we’re planning (it’s both Luke and Sheba’s birthdays!) at the end of this month. They are great for tug in the house, but getting him and Sheba to actually play tug in the house with it isn’t always easy…..see below how as soon as I give it to him they head to the door and want to take it outside!

I’ve just about given up on finding something my dogs won’t destroy. Sometimes I just buy the toys, knowing they’ll be destroyed, but the fun is in the destruction.The least destructible toys I’ve found are also the ones the dogs don’t enjoy playing with. I’ll be watching this space to see what you come up with.

I had found the same thing with Sheba….if she can’t destroy it, she doesn’t want to play with it. I’m at least happy that so far Luke does like to play with at least some of the indestructible toys. I will be sure to share our results when we try the new things!

The only things our dogs don’t immediately destroy are the black rubber kongs (not the red they can chew them) and antlers. Freighter had antlers when he was younger because those were the only things he could not chew through. It is hard with an aggressive chewer.

We do have a black kong that Luke does like to play with sometimes, and it is holding up well. We avoid antlers because Cricket is food aggressive so we can’t have any food type thing that is long lasting….they’ll fight over it.

Finding dog toys that hold up to the jaws of big, incessant chewers can be a challenge. I had that problem with our Golden Retriever Bentley. The super-tough black hard rubber chew bone was one of the few things he could not get through. He also loved to gnaw the rope arms/legs off those types of toys, then try to de-stuff them. The Bumi toy looks like it would be a great chew toy. I’ve never seen that one, but haven’t had Bentley around for 5 years now.

We actually do have another bone shaped toy of a rubber material that has stood up to him. It came in our BarkBox and I forget what brand it is now. I’ll have to look at it. We also have the rope toys from Damien’s Best dog toys (mentioned in the article I linked to) and the ball part of those are still intact…even though they remove the ends.

Our West Paw Design toys look remarkably unscathed from Chewy’s chewing. Perhaps he doesn’t chomp so hard because they don’t taste like food?
Maybe Luke and Sheba are trying to do you a favor by taking tug outside. No accidentally knocking things over!

Speaking from experience here, first of all toys for large dogs has nothing to do with being indestructible. Dolly can destroy things in seconds like that tug toy, I don’t get stuffies for her either, sometimes I buy them from the clearance bins just to let her destroy. But she never eats the stuffing or the squeaker which is good. She is only allowed squeaky balls, Kong makes good ones, her big football is her favorite and has lasted a long time, and the Hartz Duraplay squeaky balls/toys are good too. Dolly’s orange Kong ball has almost lost its squeak and it month’s old and squeaked a lot. Remember those DNA results? Something about a Rat Terrier? There’s your chewer!

You have a great memory….I’m impressed you remembered the Rat Terrier in him! I’m glad to know where his chewing must have come from then. You have a very good point that it is not only large dogs that can be destructive. I wish Luke didn’t eat everything, then I could let him destroy things which I know he enjoys (maybe he’ll at least outgrow the eating part). I was going to look at the Kong balls, but balls aren’t really Luke’s favorite thing…maybe the football though.

Leo was like that – he could destroy anything in record breaking time. I never did find anything that would stand up to his chewing. Best of luck to you – and let me say I enjoyed your honesty with this post. Very informative and professionally approached about a product. I applaud your integrity.

We’ve had similar experiences with Chewy, which is one of many reasons we like that company. When Rudy was a puppy he was a toy destroyer. KONGs were the only kind he didn’t demolish. (Thankfully he grew out of that destruction phase.)

Thanks, that at least gives me some hope that Luke will outgrow this! Sheba didn’t outgrow her destruction of stuffed toys, but she’s never destroyed any rubber or zogoflex toys…plus I didn’t have to worry about her eating any part of it either.

I like Chewy.com’s customer service, too! I had gotten a battery-operated toy to challenge Ducky with; but getting the thing apart to put the batteries in and then putting it back together again was more of a challenge to my patience than it was worth. So, I called Chewy and asked them for a return authorization. They gave me the same suggestion about giving it to the shelter. I still have the toy — in pieces because of the challenge — but one of these days maybe I’ll remember it.

WAG ‘N WOOF PETS

Sign up for Wag 'n Woof Pets

Email Address

The Farm!

Rainbow Bridge

Amazon Affiliate

Wag 'n Woof Pets is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. A * indicates an affiliate link.